The Honey in the Trap
by Alexannah
Summary: Stranded on an Unsafe planet, Jenny and Luke's lives turn into a struggle for survival against a faceless enemy. Even if their respective parents can reach them, surely they'll be running straight into an ambush? Chapter Three: Vampire Weasels
1. Dream Previews

**AN:** Ship is Luke/Jenny. M rating is for violence (including animals eating other animals)/threat/injury description. Story is set some time after JE, and pre-TWoSJS, ignoring future canon.

This story will be quite long. I have the first 28 chapters written, which I estimate to be just over a quarter of the plot. I will be posting every couple of weeks-sorry, I know it probably feels like a long time between, but it allows time for any hiccups in writing. If I were to post all the pre-written chapters in quick succession, there would be a gap every time I got writer's block, or distracted by real life or another fandom.

This fic is not beta'd. I would love it to be beta'd but it is very difficult finding a beta-reader who is able to commit to such a big project. (If anyone is, or knows someone available, please let me know.) So I'm hoping any inconsistencies can be pointed out to me and corrected while I'm still in the writing stage. Apologies in advance for any such errors. It's a tricky fic to get right.

* * *

**The Honey in the Trap**

By Alexannah

**Chapter One: Dream Previews**

It was still very early, but Luke knew he wasn't going to get back to sleep. He'd tossed and turned for a while, knowing it wouldn't pay to be tired today, but eventually slid out of bed. His bags were all packed ready for the school skiing trip, but his excitement had faded along with his ability to sleep.

He crept downstairs, planning to watch the television until his mother woke up. But he obviously disturbed her somehow, as she appeared in the hallway a few minutes later. "Luke, what are you doing up at this hour?"

Sarah Jane got a shrug in response. She sighed. "Do you want a drink or anything?" she asked.

"Wouldn't say no to some hot chocolate," Luke replied, and his mother smiled as she headed into the kitchen.

"I think I can rustle some up. Can't you sleep?"

Luke, following her, paused. "I keep having this dream."

Sarah Jane nearly dropped the kettle in alarm. "Dream? What dream?"

"About this planet."

"What planet?"

"I don't know what it's called," Luke said. "But I can describe it. It's quite desolate, a lot of it wasteland, but it's got marshes and mountains and there's a sort of ruined city. It has three suns and there are a couple of planets close by; visible in the sky even in the daytime."

Sarah Jane sat down opposite her son, looking thoughtful. "Let's run it past Mr Smith, see what he says."

"Why?"

"Well it could be nothing, but you don't dream very often and it's probably a good idea to put our minds at rest. Mine, anyway."

Two mugs of hot chocolate later and the two made their way up to the attic, where Luke repeated his description with as much detail as he could remember to the zylock.

There was a momentary silence before Mr Smith spoke. "What Luke has described is a planet in the Ox Gastarbi system. It is called Fradox."

"You mean it's a real place?"

"Yes. Luke has described it quite aptly. It is an uninhabited planet now, although there was a race who died out a few millennia ago."

"But, how can I dream about a place I've never seen?" Luke asked.

"I regret, I do not have the answers. How long have these dreams been occurring?"

Sarah Jane looked over at Luke. He could see she looked even more worried now. "Last few nights," he said.

"May I ask what the dreams are like?"

"Like?"

"I might be able to narrow down the cause of the dreams with more information. Did you for instance interact with anything in the dreams?"

"No," Luke said. "It was like viewing a slideshow, just seeing lots and lots of pictures."

* * *

It was hot, so hot. Sweat was running down Jenny's face and she struggled to keep breathing, her legs pounding scorched grass heavily.

A bright dazzle dazed her; making her unsteady, falling. Someone took her hand and stopped her from losing her balance.

Two words. "Come on."

Hunger was scraping her insides, her breath coming in thirsty pants. What she wouldn't give for some water ...

Jenny sat bolt upright, shaking, and nearly hit her head on the roof above her bunk. That dream again. She gave up on all thought of sleep, and made her way to the shuttle's water supply.

* * *

"Put it out your mind for now," Sarah Jane said, whisking Luke's breakfast plate out from under him. "Just go on your trip and have a good time. And you'd better hurry up, you don't want to miss the coach. I'll keep working with Mr Smith to see if we can figure this thing out."

"Okay, Mum." Luke grabbed his things in a hurry, gave her a quick hug and half-ran out the door. "See you in a week!"

"Have fun!" she called after him.

Luke tried to do as his mother said and put the dream out his mind. He was just hurrying down the drive when a blue glow surrounded him.

"Mum!" he just had time to yell, before he felt his atoms being pulled out of space, and everything went dark.

* * *

All the alarms were sounding. Jenny ran for the controls, and swore in a number of languages as she saw the reason for it: a very large meteoroid was heading straight for the shuttle.

She threw herself into the chair and yanked levers, pulling the ship off course, but not fast enough. Instead of colliding head on, the ship shuddered violently as the meteoroid scraped down one side. Jenny was thrown back out of her chair, and held on tight as the ship rolled over. Although it straightened out soon enough, even more alarms were going off and she scrambled back. There was a long tear in the body, one of the engines was wrecked and the oxygen tanks were damaged.

Jenny looked dazedly at the warnings. The ship would have lost all its air in five minutes. That was just great. That meant, with her respiratory bypass system, she had about ten minutes in which to find somewhere with a breathable atmosphere, and land. In the space equivalent of the Sahara. With the engine damage she had, it would take at least a week to even _see_ any sort of sanctuary, let alone reach it.

Funnily enough, Jenny wasn't panicking yet. Must be the genes, she thought. Her father didn't seem much of a panicker. He saw a problem with impossible odds and he solved it. Of course, he had many more years of practise than she did, but that didn't mean she shouldn't try.

Okay, options, she thought. One, try and fix oxygen storage in the hope of being able to salvage some air. Or two, try and fix the old engine which _might_ get me somewhere safe in time.

It had to be the second option. Jenny doubted she'd be able to fix the tanks before all the air leaked out, and she didn't want to waste valuable time trying. So she armed herself with tools and headed towards the engine.

Deep down, she knew she had no hope of surviving. After all, even at top speed she wasn't certain that she could find somewhere breathable in ten—no, nine—minutes. Still, she whistled cheerfully to keep her spirits up, satisfied that even if she failed, she was trying everything she could. She'd even sent out an SOS, though she didn't have much hope _that_ would reach anyone—

Or maybe she was wrong. Jenny started as something blue shimmered around her; she felt a yanking sensation, and blacked out.

**TBC …**


	2. Here Be Rodents

**Chapter Two: Here Be Rodents**

Hot.

She must be dreaming again, Jenny thought as she opened her eyes. The dreams had been coming often enough. But then, she was sure the meteoroid had hit her ... in that case, she should be dead. Oh, no; now she remembered swerving to avoid it—the damage to her ship. Maybe she'd run out of air, and this was some pre-suffocation hallucination …

Wait. What had that blue glow been? Had she been teleported? So maybe she wasn't dreaming ...

Jenny opened her eyes, and they instantly started watering as a sun streamed into her vision. She blinked and turned over onto her side, taking in her surroundings.

She was lying on some kind of plain, nothing but greyish rocks and half-dead grass around her. Sitting up, she saw two more suns, one only just above the horizon; and about twenty feet away, some trees began turning into a forest. Turning round, the other side of her gave way ahead to a desert; in the distance were mountains and what might be buildings, though it was hard to tell.

It felt like the dream. Hot and airless.

Jenny got shakily to her feet, and at this point noticed she was no longer wearing her own clothes: instead, camouflage combats, boots and a thin green vest top. Her trousers were full of pockets; Jenny raided them and found a penknife and a compass.

Right. She had no idea where she was, or why or how she was there, but her first job was clear. Find some water before she fainted.

The compass was no good on its own, so Jenny decided to head towards the forest. As good an attempt to find water as any.

The plain was very rocky. Some of the rocks were quite high. Jenny was just climbing over a tall row of them when her sharp eyes spotted something on the ground that didn't belong there.

"Hey!" She slithered down the other side, grazing her elbows, and hurried over. She was right; it was another person. Human, by the look of him. A boy, or young man. Unconscious.

"Hello? Are you all right?" Jenny knelt down beside him, and then noticed the gash on his head, which was lying next to a rock. "Oh, no."

It didn't look too deep. Jenny hesitated. She didn't want to leave him on his own, but if she didn't find water soon neither of them would last very long. She used the penknife to cut a few inches off one of her trouser legs, and then pressed it gently against the wound. "I'm gonna have to move you into the shade," she said. "Hang on." She managed to struggle forwards, half-carrying and half-dragging him.

Once inside the forest, she left him under a large tree and went in search of water, now using the compass to navigate her way back. She found a stream, only about twenty feet away, drank a couple of mouthfuls to keep her moving and then wet the bandage for his head and returned to him. She'd done no official first aid training, but she'd picked some things up. Her father was a doctor after all, she'd made an effort to be medically familiar.

She cleaned the wound as best she could and then left a fresh, wet bandage on it. The boy was still unconscious. Curious, she looked through his pockets—he wore the same kind of clothes that she did. He had an empty water bottle, which she went and filled, and a map of the area.

Only then did Jenny sit down and think the situation through. It wasn't looking too good; however, they weren't completely without equipment. The fact that he'd been given the map and her the compass was a clue that she'd been meant to find him. But who had put them here? And why? Was there anyone else around?

Stick to the practicalities, Jenny told herself. Food and drink, shelter, warmth. Even in the shade it was sweltering hot, but she didn't know how cold it might get once those blazing suns dipped below the horizon. There was enough wood around here she should be able to build a fire. If they stayed close to the stream, they had water. But food? That might be a problem. Shelter too. Who knew what was out there—she had a creepy feeling that they weren't alone.

"Sorry," Jenny addressed her unconscious companion. "I don't want to leave you alone, but you don't seem to be in any immediate danger and I've got to figure out what we're working with here." He didn't stir. "I won't be far, okay?" She trickled some more water down his throat, took the map and compass and headed deeper into the woods.

Studying the map, Jenny saw it was old, and not very helpfully drawn—there was no latitude and longitude, no scale bar, no key; only an arrow indicating north. At least this meant she knew which way she wanted to go, but had no idea how large the forest was, or any other area marked on the map. She could make out a valley, what looked like it could be a swamp, and a roughly-drawn building with pillars—which could mean anything from 'a building stands here', to 'a city stands here'. Personally Jenny hoped for the latter, although if the map was accurate in its scale that would mean they had a lot further to travel to get help.

Passing over the rest of the map for now, Jenny focused on the forest, where she was. There were some strange markings here and there on the map which she didn't recognise, one of which was not far from where the stream ran through the trees. She remembered once laying eyes on a map much older than this one, with "Here be monsters" written on it; she hoped to goodness that wasn't what the symbols meant.

She stopped suddenly as something moved up ahead. As they always did in confrontation, Jenny's hands twitched for a trigger, which was a reaction she'd been trying to deprogram herself from. Instead, they found the knife still in her pocket, and she grasped the handle firmly.

A thicket twitched in its lower branches. Jenny remained frozen, waiting. Without warning a ball of fur came barrelling out of the greenery right at her. She reacted, throwing the knife.

All she succeeded in doing was shaving a few hairs off its tail and making it veer off sideways, now running _from_ her. Jenny retrieved the blade from the ground and let her heartsrate return to normal. Probably just some harmless rodent. At the least, if her aim had been better, it could have made a meal.

Still, all wasn't lost. A small round fruit was growing on the plant the creature had been hiding in. Jenny had no idea if it would be edible, for either her or humans, but in the absence of anything better, picked as many as she could carry and made her way back to the human boy in the rapidly dimming light. Two of the suns had already set.

**TBC …**


	3. Vampire Weasels

**Chapter Three: Vampire Weasels**

Luke let out a groan as he came to. His head hurt. What was going on, where was he?

He was lying on the ground, he could tell that much. It was hard, and damp. He shivered. As his senses woke up, he could hear a faint crackling nearby.

He opened his eyes, not daring to try sitting up yet. He was outside, under the stars, although they didn't look like the stars he was familiar with. He gulped nervously, and turned his throbbing head to the side.

A small fire was lit a couple of feet away, and it was starting to go out. Luke edged nearer, trying to catch some of the warmth. He shivered, and realised his arms were bare. He'd changed clothes? And it was freezing!

He froze at the sound of returning footsteps, and briefly considered pretending to still be asleep, but the owner of the feet came into view before he could decide. At first all he could see was a dark figure, but they moved into the firelight and he could see it was a girl, possibly his age or a bit older.

"Hi." She dropped a couple more sticks onto the fire, which flared up wonderfully. "You're awake. How's your head?"

Luke reached up and touched the part of his head which ached, and felt dried blood. "Ow. Hurts a bit. What's going on, where am I?"

"I don't know," she replied, and his heart sank. "I woke up here same as you, only it was still light then. I'm Jenny, by the way, what's your name?"

"Luke."

"Nice to meet you, Luke," she said with a small smile, sitting down beside him, and handed him a water bottle. "You should drink something."

"Thanks," he said, only just realising he was thirsty. He took a couple of gulps and replaced the cap. "So … where exactly are we?"

"I was hoping you might have an idea." She was visibly disappointed, but it passed quickly.

"Well, I know where we're not."

"Great, where aren't we?"

Luke looked up at the stars again. "Earth. Or near it, even. The constellations are completely different."

The news that they were billions of light-years away from home didn't seem to shake Jenny much. "Were you teleported here as well?"

"I think so, yeah. But why? How?"

"I don't know, but these were in my pocket." She showed him a penknife and a compass. "You had the bottle and a map—sorry, I raided your pockets. Also my clothes were different."

"Yeah, ditto. Wait, we got a map?" Luke started hunting through his pockets, but Jenny handed it to him.

"It won't make much sense till daylight; I'm not sure when that is. I only woke a couple of hours ago I think, and it was light then. The suns set pretty quickly here."

"What kind of planet are we on? Any sign of life?"

"Not people, if that's what you mean, though there's trees and water so it's habitable. I think you're missing the main point though."

"Which is?"

"Who put us here. I mean, someone has to have done this, it's deliberate. The question is who, and why."

"Mm." Luke considered. "Do you reckon there are others out there like us?"

"I don't know. I haven't seen anyone yet, unless you count a small fuzzy rodent. But we should look around in the morning, see if we can find anything to give us a clue. How's your head?"

Luke felt it. "Okay."

Jenny pointed towards the fire, before which Luke saw a small pile of unrecognisable fruit. "I don't know what that is, but it's all I could find to eat. Make sure you leave some for breakfast tomorrow."

"Thanks," Luke said, taking one. He was about to bite straight into it when Jenny stopped him, and pulled the very thick, hard skin off. "Oh … thanks."

"You're welcome. Are you tired?"

Luke savoured the fruit, even though it was much sharper than he would choose to eat. "No, not really."

"Do you mind keeping watch while I get some shuteye?"

"Not at all, go ahead."

"Thanks." Jenny handed him the equipment, curled up on the ground beside him and closed her eyes; after only a few minutes, her breathing evened and Luke was sure she was asleep.

Funnily enough, he hadn't started to panic yet. Maybe that would come later. His situation was still in the process of sinking in.

He was stranded, on an alien planet, with no way of contacting his mother for help … Yep, that sounded pretty dire.

At least he wasn't alone. He looked back at Jenny. She seemed to have a gift for keeping her cool. If anyone else their age, save for his friends who were used to alien stuff, had found themselves on another planet Luke was pretty sure they would have seriously panicked. Scratch that, _anyone_ normal would panic. Maybe she was just very good at hiding it.

Well, it was his responsibility as someone who had dealt with space and alien issues before, to take the lead on this one. Not that he wasn't grateful for her looking out for him while he was unconscious. And getting food and everything. He should be useful there—after all, he'd read a wilderness survival book once, and he remembered every word. Still, he needed to find them a way back home.

A twig snapping caught his attention instantly, and he tensed. Something, or someone, was nearby. For a moment Luke was paralysed, then he slowly reached out for the penknife. Weapons weren't exactly his thing, but chances were whatever was out there probably wasn't going to be talked out of attacking them.

The firelight reflected off a small pair of eyes in the darkness, and Luke relaxed slightly. Probably one of the rodents Jenny had mentioned. He had no sooner processed that there was probably no danger, when something small and furry jumped at him.

Luke flung up his arms in automatic reaction, accidentally dropping the knife, and whacked the thing into the tree. It fell to the ground, apparently dazed, but something grabbed his ankle and he looked down.

The creatures, whatever they were, may have been 'fuzzy' as Jenny had put it, but they were far from cute. Rows of sharp incisors bared at him, beady black eyes glinting almost red in the flames. This next one had sunk its teeth into him, but grasped only a mouthful of trouser leg. Luke gave it a vicious kick and it flew off him, landing in the fire with a squeal. It practically disintegrated before his eyes.

The dust had barely settled when the first one, apparently recovered, leapt for Luke's face. He was ready this time and caught the creature in mid-air, quickly grasping it by its tail and hanging it upside-down so it couldn't bite him. It let out a shrill squeal, like the dead one had. Luke suddenly realised what it meant.

"Jenny, wake up!"

"Wha?" His companion sat up suddenly, rubbing her eyes. "What's going on?"

"We need to move," Luke said. "Ow!"

The creature fighting to get out of his grasp had raked its claws along his arm, and he dropped it. It made a beeline for his face again, but Jenny—she had the quickest reflexes of anyone he'd ever seen—caught it. It sunk its teeth into her fingers.

"_Ouch!_ Little git!"

"Drop it in the fire!"

She did, and it died mid-shriek, leaving only ashes behind. "Okay, that's weird. What are they, vampire weasels?"

"Dunno, but we've got to move." Luke snatched up the map, compass and water bottle; Jenny picked up the knife with her uninjured hand. "Not unless we want the whole pack on us. I bet anything that shriek of theirs is to call the others."

"Great. So where do we go?"

"I don't know; anywhere other than here." Luke pocketed the equipment and picked up a branch from the fire, holding it up for light. "You've seen this place in daylight, right?"

Jenny nodded. "The stream's this way; if we follow it, it'll be easier to navigate and we'll still be near a water supply. Follow me."

Luke handed her the torch, they joined hands and stumbled together into the night.

**TBC …**


	4. Climbing and Stripping

**Chapter Four: Climbing and Stripping**

Luke's scratch was stinging, but he ignored it. Jenny held the torch with her good hand; Luke could feel the fingers linked with his were wet with blood. "Is your hand okay?" he asked, speaking for the first time since setting out towards the river. "It looked like a nasty bite."

Jenny paused before answering. "Throbs like mad," she admitted, "but I've had worse. I think we're almost there."

Thankfully, in the few minutes they'd been walking, they'd neither seen nor heard any sign of the fanged rodents. Luke hoped they'd find somewhere to spend the night soon; the branch was almost burned down. Soon Jenny would have to put it out or risk burning her hand. He didn't fancy trying to make his way in total darkness.

It came all too soon, though. Despite the dim glow the torch cast, Jenny suddenly plunged forward with a yelp, her hand wrenched out of Luke's, and the flames disappeared with a splash.

"JENNY!" Luke yelled. It probably wasn't the smartest move, but any predators around would have been able to see their light anyway—at least up until that point. He didn't dare move, unable to see an inch in front of his face, and reached out blindly, trying to find something other than tree branches.

Down near his feet, he heard a lot of spluttering, and then Jenny's voice. "Ugh, it's _f-freez-zing_."

"You fell in the river?"

He heard her scramble awkwardly out of the water. "Yeah. _D-don't_ st-tep forward, the b-b-bank's r-right in front of y-you. I did-dn't see it, I jus-st thought it w-was a d-dip in the g-ground. It looks d-different in the d-d-dark."

Luke squinted. "Can you see anything?"

"No. But I t-tripped on something that f-felt like a rope. Hold st-still, I'll try and find it."

It seemed to take forever. Luke offered to help, but Jenny said there was no sense in them _both_ falling into the river. After a few minutes he thought his eyes were starting to adjust to the dark; he could make out Jenny's form crawling slowly over the ground, and didn't jump when she accidentally brushed against him.

"Found it!" she said eventually. "It's not a rope, though … feels like some sort of plant. Come and see."

"I don't think 'see' is the right word," Luke commented, but found her and knelt down to grasp the rubbery stem. It was certainly very rope-like. He guessed it must be some sort of vine. The leaves were thin and papery, but the bulk of the vine felt very strong.

"This could be useful," he said. "We could use it like actual rope."

"That's what I thought." Jenny was moving away from him now. "I'll see if I can find the roots, cut it off there. You reel in the other end."

The vine was very long; it seemed to take forever for Luke to reach the end, by which time he could see quite well in the darkness. Once he'd gathered it all, he turned to see Jenny hacking away at the other end, which was among a myriad of other vines, all climbing a large tree. A very large tree.

Luke smiled. It was the kind of tree that, had he ever been a child, he would probably have enjoyed climbing. The branches were just the right width and distance apart. "Jenny."

"Yeah?" she said, though she didn't look up until the tough branch finally snapped. "Aha!"

"Check out the tree."

Jenny looked up too. "It's big."

"Yeah. Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"The chance of one person thinking exactly the same thought as another at any given time is incalculable," Jenny pointed out. "But if you're thinking it would be a good place to shelter, then I suppose we're at least on the same track."

"I was. Have you ever climbed a tree before?" It was a stupid question, Luke thought a moment later; of course she would have. But it turned out he was wrong.

"Nope. Other things, yeah; not trees though."

"Well, it looks easy enough," Luke said. "The branches look sturdy, nice and thick, and they're at regular intervals. Want to go first, or shall I?"

"Have _you_ climbed a tree before?" Jenny enquired.

"Er … no."

"I'll go first then."

The first set of branches were quite high up. Luke was about to offer to give Jenny a leg up when she solved the problem by lassoing one of the upper ones with the vine and scooting up it. Once it came to ascending the actual branches, she was like a monkey; she disappeared into the darkness within a minute. "Your turn."

Luke tried to focus on the fact that they were stranded on an alien planet and in desperate need of shelter, in the hope it would distract him from the odd desire he had to not embarrass himself in front of this girl by taking far longer to get up the tree. It didn't really work. Luke made it up the vine fine, untied it and pulled it up, before making his way towards Jenny with it over his shoulder. His progress was slower, but she made no comment.

"So," he said, feeling the need to make conversation once he was safely sitting beside her on the thick, sturdy branch two-thirds of the way up the trunk and a good way off the ground. "What do you normally climb, if not trees?"

Jenny shrugged. "I've climbed a few walls. A giant aerial. The cliffs at Thornhed. Next to them, really, this tree's a piece of cake." She watched Luke untangling the vine. "What about you?"

"I climbed the rope at school in PE." Luke began tying them both down to the tree. "Other than that, I haven't really climbed anything." Was it wrong that he wanted to impress her?

"School, really?" Jenny sounded almost wistful, for some reason. "Interesting."

"Are you sure your hand's okay?" Luke wanted to move the subject away from climbing.

"Yeah. I think it's stopped bleeding now."

"You really should put a bandage on it," Luke said. "The last thing we want is that getting infected."

"Good point." Jenny pulled out the knife and put it to her undamaged trouser leg.

"Hold it!" Luke grabbed her wrist. "Let me. You already sacrificed some for my head. Besides, your clothes are all wet."

She let him take the knife and cut a bandage from his own trouser leg. "You really should take those clothes off," he said without thinking.

"_Excuse me?_"

Luke felt himself go bright red as he realised what he'd said, and was thankful for the darkness. "I only meant—they're sopping wet; if you keep them on, you'll get ill."

"Yeah, well, it's not like I've got anything to wear instead, is it?" Jenny pointed out.

Luke considered. It was cold; but then, he was the boy, right? It would be considered chivalrous—not to mention he really was concerned about her health. He unwrapped the vine again, put it down and pulled off his t-shirt.

"Er, Luke? What are you doing?"

"We have one set of dry clothes between us," he said, offering it to her. "Take them."

"You're joking. I'm fine, really," Jenny insisted, though he could feel her shivering.

"No you're not, and you won't be by any means." Luke pressed his shirt into her hands. "Go on, take them."

"Won't you get cold?"

"I'll be less cold than you will be if you stay in those clothes," Luke said logically, starting to undo his trousers. Jenny's eyes widened and she quickly turned her head away. He pulled them off, gritting his teeth as the wind caught his legs, and passed them over. "I'm afraid I can't offer you underwear."

"That's fine!" Jenny said quickly.

"We could drape your wet stuff over the branches and it'll dry quite quickly come morning," Luke said. "Um, I'm not looking." He swivelled round so his back was to her.

While Jenny changed, Luke considered the clothes they were wearing—or in his case, _had been_ wearing. He could sort of see the logic in the change—he had been teleported in school uniform, after all; not the most practical clothes for this kind of situation. But it still begged the question, why they had been taken here in the first place. It could only have been planned; the clothes, he only now registered, were his exact size, and he guessed Jenny's probably were as well.

He looked down. At least his boxers were his own, and in good condition. He could imagine Clyde's voice: "Always wear your best pants, you never know when you're going to be abducted and have to strip in front of a pretty girl." Not that Clyde had ever said that, but it was the sort of thing he would probably be saying in future.

_If_ Luke got a chance to tell him about this.

**TBC …**


	5. Lost Breakfast

**Chapter Five: Lost Breakfast**

The gnawing hunger woke Jenny up, although once conscious, the sunlight made her eyes sting and her fingers began throbbing like mad.

_I've had a bullet in my chest,_ she thought stubbornly. _This should not bother me._

Then she unwrapped the makeshift bandage, and yelped.

The wound had stopped bleeding, but that was about the only good thing Jenny could say about it. Her three middle fingers, which the blasted rodent had almost bitten off completely, were purple and swollen, the scabs that had formed tinged a nasty yellow-green.

She shuddered. Great. She _really_ needed an infection now.

Jenny knew how to treat infections with the average first aid kit, but without one, she had no idea. A spasm of fear flit through her.

Next to her, Luke made a movement like he was trying to turn over in his nice soft bed, but couldn't because he was actually tied to a tree, and let out a small moan.

At least she wasn't alone, Jenny thought, relaxing slightly despite the situation. They just had to keep calm and figure this out. Today they should definitely have a proper talk about how they got here and what they were going to do.

She re-bandaged her fingers gingerly, and waited for Luke to wake up.

* * *

"Morning," Jenny said in a cheerful tone, as Luke opened his eyes groggily. He was grateful—they needed optimism. "How did you sleep?"

"Er …" Luke rubbed his eyes. "Pretty good considering I've never slept in a tree before. You?"

"Same." Jenny began untying the vine. "I dunno how late it is, but we need to figure out a plan of action."

"Yeah …" Luke rubbed his eyes again and stifled a yawn. "Sorry. I'm not really a morning person."

"That's okay. I've been thinking, we need to work out who put us here, and why. I reckon that's got to be the key to getting off here."

"And getting back home," Luke added, thinking longingly of his mother and his friends. They would all be panicking right now. Would Mr Smith be able to figure out what had happened to him—and even if he did, what could Sarah Jane do about it?

"Mm," Jenny said absently, pulling off the last of the vine. "Home sounds good." She sounded wistful again, but started speaking again before Luke could think of a way to ask her why. "So does breakfast; come on—"

She started clambering off the 'bed' branch, but swayed dangerously, and slipped. Luke grabbed her arm. "Whoa!"

"Ow!"

"You okay?" Luke called down.

"Yeah … no. Oh, muzples." Muzples? "I feel … urgh."

"Do you have a foothold?"

"Uh … foothold?"

Jenny sounded like she was on the verge of passing out. Luke tightened his grip. "Hang on, I'll help you get down." With his free hand, he groped behind him for the vine, and then paused, wondering how on earth he was supposed to tie it round her with one hand.

"Jenny," he said, trying to sound calm and in control. "I'm lowering down the vine. I need you to grab it and hang on as tightly as you can, okay?"

"Okay."

He started passing the vine down towards her. Jenny wrapped it firmly around her free hand and clung on.

"Right," Luke said. "Now I'm going to let go of your arm, and you need to hang on tight to the vine. And I'll lower you down. Got it?"

"Got it. I'm not stupid."

"I know you're not," Luke said, and began doing as he'd said. His hands and forearms were seriously burned by the time she reached the ground, but it had worked, and he felt rather impressed at how well he'd handled the situation.

"Thanks," Jenny said as Luke finished climbing down after her.

"You're welcome." He studied her for a moment; she was sitting up against the tree, looking pale. "How you feel?"

"Nauseous," Jenny said with a shudder.

"Maybe you should lie back for a bit."

"I'm sorry about that; I was fine while I was sitting down, but the moment I moved my head swam and—"

"Hey, don't worry about it. I'm just relieved you didn't fall out the tree and break something. We don't need any more injuries to worry about. Talking of which, how's the hand?"

"Infected."

"Let me see."

"You sure you want to?" Jenny asked, but lifted it anyway. Luke removed the bandage as gently as he could, though he still felt her flinch slightly.

"Hmm …"

"What?"

"You know, I'm not convinced that's an infection," Luke said, studying the bite intently. "The skin looks almost green—I think it might be poisoned."

"Oh." Jenny winced. "Terrific."

"We should have washed it properly last night. Let me."

Jenny lay down on her side, on the edge of the bank, while Luke tenderly washed her hand. It was probably too little, too late; but neither would say so. Luke didn't like the thought that the rodents' bites were poisonous, but didn't raise the subject. Jenny was probably thinking the same thing.

"I don't like to put the bandage back on," Luke said when he'd finished. "You should really have a clean one."

"We're going to run out of clothing if I keep putting new strips on," Jenny said. "I'm fine."

"Maybe there's some kind of plant we can use instead. I'll take another strip off mine in the meantime."

Carefully he cut a new bandage off the trousers Jenny was wearing, and tied it round her hand. "We left breakfast back at the fire. Where did you get the fruit from?"

"Um … about ten minutes' walk westwards from the fire. But there were vampire weasels there as well, or one anyway. I think I must have just startled it, why it didn't attack then."

"Vampire weasels?" Luke said with a grin.

"Well do you have a better name for them?"

"I dunno. Maybe something shorter. Just 'rodents' is simple."

"Yeah, but it's boring," Jenny said with a chuckle.

Luke grinned. "You remind me of a friend of mine. He'd probably call them the Fanged Fuzzballs or something."

"Hey, that's a good name. Or just 'Fuzzballs' if you're too lazy to say the whole thing," Jenny teased.

"Sounds too cute a name for creatures that tried to rip your hand off."

"You're Mr Picky."

They both giggled, but stopped abruptly as a sound reached their ears. Their hands found each others' and they stayed very still, straining their ears.

Nearby, something was moving. Whatever it was made a strange sound, like a cross between slithering and squelching, and was heading past them, the way they had come.

"That's not a Fuzzball," Jenny whispered once the noise had gone completely.

"What do you think it was?"

"I don't know, and I don't want to find out. Might I suggest we start moving away from that thing and look for breakfast on the way?"

"Good idea."

**TBC …**


	6. Theory and Resources

**Chapter Six: Theory and Resources**

Luke climbed back up the tree and brought down Jenny's clothes, dry already. He then checked they had everything while she changed.

"Thanks," Jenny said as she handed his clothes back to him. "You're very sweet, you know."

Luke flushed. "Er, thanks. I mean, you're welcome. Er …"

After a moment's stammering, he remembered he was still in his boxers, and hastily pulled his clothes on. "Okay, I'm ready. Are you okay to walk?"

Jenny let him pull her up, but then stood for a moment on her own. "Okay, I think. I'll feel better when I've eaten, but we can't do much about that right now."

Luke handed her a freshly filled water bottle. "Drink, now, and I'll refill it before we go."

They hadn't been walking long when the trees abruptly disappeared, and Jenny grabbed Luke's arm. "Careful!"

The forest ended at the top of a cliff, and suddenly Luke could see a vast plain in front of them. For at least a couple of miles before them the ground was covered in rocks, and beyond that stretched desert. His hand flew to shield his eyes from the bright sunlight—or should that be _suns _light? There were three. And with a hammering heart, he could also make out two planets in the glaring sky.

"Whoa," he whispered.

"Yeah, I know," Jenny said. "Not the best course for us, I think. We'll be roasted before we've gone two steps."

"No, I mean—I've been here before."

"What?"

"I've been here before," Luke repeated.

"Really?"

"No, I mean—I've been dreaming about this place for days. It's called Fradox, in the Ox Gastarbi system."

"Dreams?" Jenny said nervously.

"Yeah …" Luke turned round. "What?"

"I've been dreaming too. Though I didn't know … I mean, I didn't see much, it was like I was feeling … this. The heat, the thirst; I was running, and there was someone with me—not that I saw who it was."

"I got lots of images," Luke said. "No people in them. What could have caused the dreams?"

"I dunno. But don't you think it's a bit weird? You get the map, I get the compass. You get the pictures, I get the … I dunno, the feelings that go with them."

"Like we're two parts of something bigger," Luke suggested.

"Right. And that creeps me out. No offence."

"None taken. It makes me nervous too," he admitted.

"So in the dreams did you see anything that might be helpful?"

"There's a sort of ruined city, might provide better shelter. But I didn't see any signs of life in the dreams."

"There's got to be_ someone_ around," Jenny said. "Someone put us here."

"Yeah, but what if they did and then scarpered to another planet or spaceship or something? Besides, something tells me whoever put us here isn't that friendly."

"Yeah, but they don't want us _dead_, right? Otherwise we'd be dead already. So they want something from us … we just have to figure out what."

"Well, we wanted to make a plan of action. Where's the map?"

They moved back into the shade and spread the map out on the ground. "I'm guessing that building symbolises the city I saw," Luke said, pointing to it.

"Which means if the map is to scale, it's a long way away."

"And across marshland," Luke added.

"Marshland?"

Luke pointed to the brown patch beyond the desert. "I saw marshes in the dreams. If they're marked on the map, it must be this."

"So if we want to find the city, we have to go through desert followed by marsh. Great."

"Yeah … plus I don't see any water sources between here and there. No way the water bottle will carry enough for that journey."

Jenny bit her lip. "Maybe we need a new plan, then. I wonder what's off the map."

Luke raised his eyebrows. "You can't be seriously thinking about finding out."

"Well, whoever gave us this is probably expecting us to use it to navigate, right? So for all we know our best chance is to stray from it."

"Or," Luke pointed out, "that's our best chance of certain death."

"If we just get to the edge and have a peek, we should get an idea. The forest's in a corner, so we don't have that far to go, and it's all sheltered."

"I don't know …"

"Well, do you have a better idea?"

"No," he admitted. "All right, let's see what's off the map."

They headed west, back into the forest. It was slow going. Jenny looked feverish and occasionally stumbled, but brushed it off if Luke commented. He was starting to get worried the poison was stronger than they guessed.

"I've had a thought," he said after a while. "If we're supposed to survive this, then there must be something that will cure the poison, right?"

Jenny considered. "I suppose that's logical. As much as _any_ of this is logical."

They stopped when they came to a large plant directly in their path, with large, strong yet flexible leaves. Luke took a load of them, rolled them up and put them in his pockets. They paused again when they passed another bush bearing the fruit they had eaten before.

"Thanks," Jenny said as Luke peeled hers for her.

"Don't mention it."

After a very late breakfast, they changed course and began heading north, the shortest route to the edge of the map. Luke was sure the forest was getting denser. The trees grew so close together Luke was sure their roots must be all tangled up together. Once or twice he and Jenny had had to edge sideways in between trunks.

The air was also getting more and more humid. They could hear faint buzzing sounds, but so far none of the native insects had bothered them. Luke hadn't even seen any.

It wasn't until his stomach began rumbling again that they stopped for breath and a water break.

"I'm sure it must be lunchtime," Jenny gasped as she handed Luke the bottle.

"Yeah."

Luke had hoped they would find another source of food, but no luck so far. They shared the last of the fruit packed into their pockets, neither wanting to wonder how long it would be before they found food again.

"We should have brought more," Jenny said as they began moving again. "Rigged up some kind of carrier."

"Well, we can try next time," Luke said, ignoring the little voice inside that was asking if there would _be_ a next time. They hadn't found any water since leaving the stream and they were officially out. The trees provided shelter from the suns but it was still unpleasantly hot. He figured this must be what it felt like in a rainforest, sans the rain. And hopefully the snakes.

He had been keeping his eyes open for any kind of useful resource. At least they had some 'bandages' now, as well as a rope substitute, but he had a long list of things that he was mentally comparing with every plant they came across.

"Yes!" He stopped suddenly, and Jenny nearly crashed into him.

"What is it?"

Luke pointed at a thick, stiff, orangey plant which he'd just broken a stem off of. It was hollow inside. "I've been trying to find something like this. Hopefully this ends our water problem."

"Really?" Jenny watched as he broke off a length of the stem, and using a flint as a hammer, drove the stem upwards into the trunk of the nearest tree.

"Have the bottle ready."

It seemed to take an age, and Luke began to worry that he'd done it wrong, but a slow trickle eventually came down and began pooling in the bottle.

Jenny gasped. "That's genius! How did you know to do that?"

"I read a lot," he said. "How does it taste?"

She took a sip. "Odd. Not unpleasant. Just odd."

"With some trees you can boil it down to make syrup. Though you'd need something to boil it in. Plus I don't know what any of these trees are, so have no way of telling if it's a good idea."

"But at the least, we've got a constant supply of water now, as long as we're in here," Jenny said, grinning. "You're a genius, Luke."

Luke smiled too. "So I've been told."

Jenny laughed and gave him a friendly shove.

They both drank their fill before topping up the bottle, and Luke pocketed the stem 'tap'. They moved on, their pockets heavier but their spirits lighter.

**TBC …**


	7. Calling For Help

**Chapter Seven: Calling For Help**

The Doctor was, as usual, talking to himself as he moved around the console room. It had been three months since he'd last said goodbye to his companions—this time, several of them—and he'd kept moving almost constantly since, to keep his mind off his losses. Activity, he'd long ago figured, was the best cure for grief. Well, not a cure so much, but a distraction.

Talking of distractions …

He jumped almost out of his skin as Martha's old mobile rang. Ignoring the pang that it caused, the Doctor picked it up. He didn't recognise the number, and he pressed the green button, curious.

"Hello?"

"Doctor?"

"Sarah Jane?" he said, recognising her voice. "Hello. This is a nice surprise."

"I don't know about 'nice'," she said, and now he realised she sounded close to tears. "I didn't know what else to do—I need help, Doctor; your help."

Within two minutes, the Doctor was crouched in the drive of Number Thirteen, Bannerman Road, bleeping his sonic screwdriver. "Well, it can't have been a regular teleport. I can't reverse it. Did you actually see what happened?"

"I only glimpsed the last millisecond or so," Sarah Jane said. "But I definitely saw him fade, and a blue light."

"Sounds like a teleport."

"If it was a regular one, Mr Smith could have reversed it—I wouldn't have called for you. But he reckons it took Luke into another time, and … and he can't reverse that. You're the time expert, so …"

"You were right to call." The Doctor stood up. "Well, I'm getting some interesting energy readings."

"Meaning?"

"Mr Smith's hunch is definitely correct. Luke's been moved to another time. The question is, when, where, and by whom."

"That's three questions," Sarah Jane said as they headed up to the attic.

"We need to narrow it down. Has anything odd happened lately? What am I saying, this is Ealing … Has there been anything Luke-related?"

"Well … he's been dreaming."

The Doctor raised his eyebrows. "Something specific?"

"Yes, but for Luke to dream is rare enough in itself—it's only happened once, and the dream turned out to mean something."

"Could you elaborate?"

"His … for lack of a better word, creator—he was grown from multiple human DNA samples—we all thought dead. Then one night he dreams of her; next thing we know, she's out of the woodwork and coming for him."

"I see." The Doctor thought this over. "Could be he has a trace of psychic energy as a by-product of how he was made; or one of the people whose DNA he was grown from had some to pass on. What about the recent dreams, then?"

"He's been dreaming of a planet—a real one." Sarah Jane stopped in front of the computer. "Mr Smith, please show the Doctor Fradox."

"Fradox, hmm?" the Doctor said, looking at the images Mr Smith put up.

"You know it?"

"I know of it; never been. There was some kind of civilisation there in the Dark Times; as far as I was aware it's not been occupied since. A human might survive there for a while, but the weather is extreme and the Shadow Proclamation ruled it Unsafe for visitors. It will have been blocked off by a force field."

"Just because the weather's bad?"

"No, no. I don't know why they blocked it off—I've never been privy to that information. My best guess is, it looks a lot friendlier than it is. And considering it's mostly desert, it doesn't look all that friendly to begin with."

A short silence fell. "You think Luke's there, don't you," Sarah Jane said quietly.

"He has to be somewhere. And this is the only clue we have."

"So how do we find him?"

The Doctor rubbed the back of his neck. "I'm not certain. The problem is, if there's a force field, getting the TARDIS to the planet is going to be tricky, if not impossible. However, if Luke's there then there must be some flaw in the force field to have allowed the teleport. Perhaps between myself and Mr Smith, we can track a route …"

* * *

"Whoa." It was Jenny's turn to stop suddenly.

The trees, a moment ago growing so tightly together, had come to an end. Before them lay a clearing at least a mile long and half a mile wide. Most of it was simply wild grass, brown from the merciless suns, but there was a large area of shrubbery, and the river—at least, Jenny assumed it was the same one—pooled into a small lake before continuing on its path eastwards.

"Those bushes look hopeful," Luke said.

"Sorry?"

"I'm gonna look for things we can use. Why don't we split up, try and cover more ground?"

Jenny hesitated, and Luke added, "I don't mean _split up_, like, miles apart. I just mean you take one side and I take the other."

"Oh, good," she said in relief. "Yeah, 'course."

She hadn't got far when she glanced away from the bushes and thought she saw something glinting in the air. She paused, squinting, and there it was again. Not so much a glint. More of a shimmer. And a tiny one at that.

Jenny kept her eyes firmly on the spot, slowly reaching into her pocket for the knife. She flicked the blade open, took aim, and threw with deadly accuracy.

With a lot of bright sparks, something fell out of the sky and rolled over the ground, stopping almost at her feet. Jenny crouched down to get a better look. "LUKE!"

Running footsteps announced his arrival. "What?"

"This was cloaked in the sky." She pointed. "What do you think it is?"

"I dunno." Luke dropped to his knees beside her. "Definitely man-made. It's the first man-made thing we've seen here."

"I think …" Jenny picked up the fallen knife and used it to prod the object. It looked like a black glass ball, though the outer shell had shattered, revealing glimpses of wires inside. "It looks like … Whoa." She dropped the knife and withdrew sharply.

"What?" Luke scurried over, looking fearful—probably thinking by her reaction that it was a bomb or something. "What is it?"

"I think it might be a camera. A 360 degree lens camera. We're being watched."

Luke swallowed nervously. "You think it's still recording?"

"I dunno. Even if it isn't, there's got to be more around."

Luke pulled his makeshift 'hammer' out of his pocket. Jenny grabbed his arm. "Hang on. Don't destroy it yet." An idea was starting to form.

"Why not?"

She knelt back down, picked up the camera and started taking it apart, piece by piece.

"Do you know what you're doing?"

"I think so."

"That's comforting."

"The camera has to transmit its information somewhere. If I can re-wire it, get it to send it somewhere else, we might be able to send out an SOS."

"Oh yeah, and then what? Wait around for centuries for the human race to develop advanced enough space travel to find us?"

Jenny gave Luke a funny look. She hesitated. Then she said slowly, "Luke, what's the date?"

"Third of March—I think," he answered. "Assuming I woke up the same day I got transported here. I was supposed to go on my school trip."

"I meant, the year."

"2008, why?"

"Ah," Jenny said quietly. "I don't think we were just taken across space."

"What do you mean?"

"We've been taken out of time as well. At least, one of us has."

Luke frowned. "I don't understand."

"I'm from the sixty-first century."

Luke's mouth fell open. "You're from the future?"

"You're from the past," Jenny countered.

There was a long pause. "So, I don't suppose humans in your time …?"

"Oh, they've got the tech for space travel, easily. But getting whichever of us—or both—is out of our time, back to it … that's going to be harder. Twenty-first century … your lot haven't even acknowledged the existence of aliens yet, have you?"

"Sort of," Luke said. "There've been lots of very public invasions lately, but most people seem to want to convince themselves it's due to hallucinations or something."

Jenny laughed. "I wouldn't mind seeing your time for myself, it sounds interesting."

"Well, if we found a way of time travel, you could always visit," Luke blurted out.

She smiled. "I'd like that. The visiting, I mean. As for finding time travel …" She paused. "Maybe I should try and contact my father."

"Would he be able to help?"

"He's a Time Lord. Time travel is, well, I guess it's second nature for him."

Luke's mouth fell open. "A _Time Lord?_ Really? You … you're a Time Lady?"

"I'm an echo," Jenny said, trying to shrug it off but not quite succeeding. Luke frowned. "And he thinks I'm dead, but if we can get through to him—" She frowned. "Hang on a second, you've heard of Time Lords?"

"My mum used to travel with one," Luke said. "Although …" He paused. "I'm pretty sure there's only one left, now. The Doctor."

Jenny nodded. "That's Dad."

"Seriously? The Doctor's your father?"

"Yep. Have you met him?"

"No, but I've heard all about him from Mum. She travelled with him for years. Now, she protects Earth from our attic in Ealing. I and my friends help—"

Jenny put a hand over his mouth, and he stopped. "Hold on." She removed it. "Are you telling me, your mum protects Earth?"

"Yeah. There's aliens out there as afraid of her as they are of your dad," Luke said proudly. "Why?"

"Well, don't you _see_ it? That's it. That's why we're here; of all the people in the universe, in all of _time_, why you and I were brought here. That's what links us."

"Our parents," Luke said.

"Yeah. So what would happen if we send out that help message? What would they do?"

There was a pause. "Come after us."

"Exactly." Jenny lowered her hand, looking him solemnly in the eye. "They'd come here. It's a trap. We're …"

"Bait," Luke whispered.

Jenny nodded.

**TBC …**


	8. Worms and Weapons

**Chapter Eight: Worms and Weapons**

Despite how hard they searched the sky, neither Luke nor Jenny could find another camera. This was not comforting, however, as there was still a distinct sense of being watched.

"I guess the cloak on that one must have had a glitch or something," Luke said eventually. "I think we should forget it. I dunno about you, but I'm sure it's getting darker."

Jenny agreed—the clearing did seem much dimmer now. "We should find a place to sleep—"

She broke off abruptly and grabbed Luke's arm. They both tensed as the squelching sound reached their ears. This time, it seemed to be heading straight for them.

"Run," Jenny whispered.

Luke linked his fingers through her unhurt ones. "Which way?"

He never found out, as the source of the noise apparently had expert hearing, and chose that moment to launch itself after them.

Out of the nearest row of trees burst what looked like a very large earthworm. Not large as in long—although it was long. It was as long as a python and at least twice as thick. The end facing them glinted with about six rows of teeth. And for such a clumsy-looking creature, it was also moving pretty quickly.

It was four feet away. The mouth opened in anticipation.

Perhaps it was dumb luck, or perhaps they could read each others' minds—either way, Luke and Jenny began running in the same direction as one. Luke, who was not over-fond of worms _or_ snakes, felt nauseous at the sound as they were pursued by the _thing_, his mind frozen. When they had to change direction, Jenny tried to tug him to the side, but at that precise moment Luke tripped on a rock. The actions combined sent him sprawling.

Jenny must have felt his hand yanked out of hers, but she was several feet away before she skidded to a stop and turned round, eyes widening in horror. Luke whipped his head around, and really wished he hadn't.

The Giant Worm was right at his feet. Luke could see every detail of its gaping, slimy mouth. At the back of its throat was some kind of pulsating—

He didn't get a chance to work out what it was before some kind of dart shot out of it and embedded itself in his thigh.

"LUKE!"

Jenny blamed herself for not having realised he'd slipped from her grasp earlier. By the time she'd started racing back, he was desperately trying to scramble away, but from the look of things his legs would no longer move.

"Jenny, just run!" he yelled. "If it shoots you you're paralysed!"

Maybe it was the word 'shoot' that reminded Jenny she had a weapon. She stumbled to a stop, pulled out the knife, took as careful an aim as she could with her hands trembling, and threw it at the worm.

It embedded itself right in the middle with a horrible _squelch_, but seemed to only irritate the creature, who turned its head towards Jenny. She ducked sideways as it shot a dart at her as well, but it fell short. The worm turned back to Luke, who'd managed to drag himself only about a foot away.

_Come on, Jenny, think,_ she said to herself. The worm wasn't interested in her. Maybe if she could sneak up behind it, she could—maybe strangle it?

She froze, and almost gagged. The worm had opened its mouth even larger and swallowed Luke's feet—boots and all. Luke glanced back, and screamed. The mouth continued moving up his legs, and he could no longer pull himself forward.

It was the only plan she had. It would be better with a weapon but she had to act _now_.

Jenny moved as quickly and quietly as she could. Two feet from the creature, she cocked her gun and took aim at the back half of the worm, which was (for now) still flat.

While the knife might have just been a nuisance, most creatures will notice if you empty three rounds of bullets into its body. The creature let out what sounded like someone trying to scream with their mouth full—which wasn't far off the mark. It stopped trying to swallow Luke and writhed in pain. Jenny dropped the gun and ran forward, grabbed Luke by the arms and pulled.

It wasn't easy. The creature still had its teeth dug into his legs. But Jenny retrieved the knife and cut it open as it died, and Luke finally emerged, white and shaking. Both of them were now covered in slime and the creature's blood.

"Are you okay?" Jenny asked as the creature finally went still.

"I dunno." Luke sat up. "I can't feel anything below the waist. I'm not sure I want to look."

Jenny gently rolled his trousers up. His legs were pretty bloody, but at least nothing looked digested. "It's bad, but could be worse. We need to get you cleaned up."

"Thanks," Luke said sincerely. "For saving my life. But where the hell did you get that gun from?"

It wasn't until he'd mentioned it that Jenny realised what she'd done, and she whirled around to stare at the gun. It lay exactly where she'd dropped it.

"I don't know. It just appeared in my hand." Jenny knew it sounded crazy.

"You mean you picked it up without noticing?"

"No, I mean literally out of thin air."

Luke frowned. "How?"

"I dunno." She eyed it warily.

"I don't know much about guns," Luke admitted.

"I do." It was an effort for Jenny to admit. "It's a TP-90. A sub-machine gun with a range of about two hundred yards."

"How do you know that?"

"It looks like one." After a moment she knelt down beside it, but wouldn't touch it.

It was the first gun she had ever used—and, to date, the only one, although she knew how to handle just about anything. She didn't want to pick it up, though her fingers twitched for it.

Dad wouldn't approve, she said to herself.

But he wasn't there, was he? He'd left her to fend for herself and now she was stuck on a dangerous planet, almost completely alone and with very little resources.

It had saved their lives. She wouldn't use it on a person. At least, not on a lethal area. She didn't want to use a gun again, but it was a question of survival—

Wait a moment—

Her conscience was interrupted in its reasoning by a realisation. There was a mark on the gun, scratched into the barrel. So caught up in her moral dilemma, she hadn't seen it before.

It wasn't just the same model. _It was the same gun_.

"That's impossible," she whispered.

"What?"

Jenny finally picked it up. It felt uncomfortably familiar in her hands. "I've seen this gun before."

"Of course, you recognised it—"

"No, I mean this actual gun." She carried it back to where Luke was sitting. "See the scratches?"

"So how did it get here?"

"Search me."

She put it back on the ground. "We'll have to figure it out tomorrow. It's getting late."

"Yeah." Luke looked up at the darkening sky. "Jenny, you couldn't give me a hand, could you?"

They probably looked like contestants for an awkward three-legged race as Jenny half-carried Luke over to the water's edge, and set him as carefully as she could down on the bank, where he proceeded to strip off his clothes again.

She felt herself blushing and quickly averted her eyes, though a little voice in her head told her they were going to have to get used to this routine if things didn't pick up.

"Okay," Luke said, and she moved him down the slope into the water. He winced as it reached his waist. "Yikes, that's cold."

Without meaning to, she spotted something, and proceeded to stare. "Luke?"

"Yeah?"

"You don't have a navel."

"Oh." Luke went red and quickly crossed his arms over where it should be. "I—"

"Don't," Jenny said quickly. "Look."

And for the first time in her life, she lifted her shirt just enough to see the place where hers should have been—had she not been machine-made.

Luke gaped. "You don't either?"

"Think it's a coincidence that that's another thing we've got in common?" Jenny dropped her top.

"I …" Luke shook his head as if trying to get water out of his ears, but Jenny knew he couldn't be as he hadn't put his head under yet. "I don't know. Probably not. I mean, our parents have weird lives, but …" He paused. "Sorry, I can't get past—I've never met anyone like me before."

Jenny swallowed. "Nor me—not exactly. I mean, I was one of hundreds from machines, but … I didn't stick around. I wasn't part of their society; I was different because of my dad."

Luke nodded, but glanced upwards again. "We need to get a move on. Aren't you going to wash too?"

Jenny eyed the water warily. "Um, no. I'm fine. I'll find us somewhere to sleep and stuff."

"Uh … sleeping up a tree might be a problem for me tonight," Luke said. "I'm not sure how long this paralysis lasts."

"Then I'll find somewhere on the ground," Jenny replied, wondering if Luke was thinking what she was—what if it was permanent?

**TBC …**


	9. Frozen

**Chapter Nine: Frozen**

While Luke cleaned himself free of slime and blood, Jenny did her best to erect a kind of shelter on the ground.

On the edge of the woods, several trees grew in a tight circle. Jenny jammed branches horizontally in between them until she'd made a roof, and then proceeded to fill all the gaps except the biggest with plant life. The result was a fairly decent little hut. It would just about fit both of them inside, lying down.

Jenny started to lay the floor with more plant life to soften it, but heard Luke calling her, and headed back to the lake. She assumed it was because he had finished washing and was getting cold, but he was looking very pale and holding one of his legs.

"What's wrong?"

"This one's not a tooth scratch," Luke said as Jenny reached the bank. "I think you might have hit it."

Jenny eyed his calf. The wound definitely looked like a bullet hole. "Oh, Luke. I'm so sorry."

"Don't be; it's not like I can feel it."

"Yet," Jenny said. "And we need to get that treated now."

"Yeah. Can you help me out?"

Jenny hesitated, glancing at the water. Luke had drifted out; he was too far away for her to just reach out and grab his hand.

"Hang on."

She hoped it wasn't obvious how much she was trembling as she pulled her boots off and rolled up her trousers. It was almost dark now, and the water looked even less friendly than it did in the daytime. Jenny took a slow step into the water, wincing as it ran over her foot.

_I can't do this_.

"Yes I can," she muttered. "I have to."

Trying to think of Luke and only Luke, she picked her way over the rough stony riverbed until she reached her companion. He was looking at her curiously.

"Are you okay, Jenny?"

"I'm fine," she lied, and helped him up.

It was with huge relief that they reached the water's edge, and Jenny supported Luke all the way to their shelter. Setting him down on the part of the floor already carpeted, she examined the wound in the dimming light.

"I'd take the bullet out, but I think that's supposed to make it worse," she said. "But the good news is, I don't think it's hit the bone—it's just a flesh wound, so it'll heal quicker. It'll still hurt once the numbness wears off, but you might be able to walk with it. Depending on how high your pain tolerance level is," she said, teasing slightly.

"I'm sure if you can fire a gun with your fingers like that, I can walk with this," Luke said seriously. "Um, won't it only heal if the bullet is taken out?"

"Oh." Jenny paused. "I suppose so. That or you'll end up with a bullet permanently in your leg."

"No thanks."

"But if I dig it out, I'll have to close the wound somehow. I don't know how to do that. Not out here in the wilderness with no first-aid kit for light-years."

"I do," Luke said. "Problem is it requires a needle and thread."

"What—sew your skin up?" Jenny winced. "Actually, I suppose … that's what they did in the old days."

Luke grinned. "They still do in my time."

"Hang on …" Jenny paused thoughtfully. "I might actually know what we can use. Sit tight, I'll be right back."

Having thoroughly explored all the plants in the clearing, or at least their section, Jenny had found a number of ones which she thought could be useful—and ones she hadn't realised the usefulness of before.

First, she stopped by a very prickly bush. The needles were very sharp and very firm. Second, she found a tree with long green strands hanging off it instead of leaves. She gave an individual one a tug, and it came free. She tried pulling it in half, but it wouldn't yield. Perfect.

"I return successful," she said as she ducked into the shelter. "One needle and thread."

Luke stared. "You're going to sew up my leg with that?"

"Do you have a better idea?"

"No," he admitted. "Okay, go on."

"I need to get that bullet out first."

Jenny had cleaned the knife as best she could in the stream. Luke closed his eyes and turned his head slightly as she dug the bullet out of his leg. It wasn't easy work, but she knew it would be ten times as difficult if he were able to feel the pain.

"Okay, it's out," she said, tossing it outside the shelter and pressing one of the leaf-bandages to it. "Now the tricky part."

Jenny had never sewn before, but knew how to do it. Luke winced as she pierced the skin, and she repressed a shudder. _You're a doctor and he's a patient_, she told herself. She had to get a grip.

She forced herself to ignore what he was doing and focus entirely on each stitch. It took a very long time. She fumbled, she dropped the needle, she stabbed him in the wrong place—but, finally, it was securely closed. Jenny tied it off, disposed of the needle, and wrapped one of the big leaves around the wound.

"There, all done." She looked up at Luke for the first time in about quarter of an hour, and saw his face was white and screwed up, his teeth biting into his lip so hard they were drawing blood. His hands were clamped tightly on the surrounding branches and his eyes were wet where his eyelids met.

"Luke?" she said softly.

He opened his eyes. "You're—you're done?"

"Yes." Jenny hesitated. "How long have you been able to feel it?"

"The numbness wore off just after you got the bullet out," Luke mumbled. He wouldn't meet her eyes.

"You should have said."

"Thought it was better you didn't know. I'd rather think you were numb if I had to do that to you."

Jenny hoped there would be no more amateur surgery, but there didn't seem much point saying so. "We'd better get some sleep. Are you okay on that floor or shall I get some more of that stuff for you to lie on?"

"What, this?" Luke turned his attention to the makeshift carpet. "It's moss," he said in surprise.

"Moss?"

"Yeah. We have it on Earth."

"Do you want more moss?"

"No, I'm okay. Thanks, Jenny."

"You're welcome. And I'm going to get some for me, and some for covers," Jenny said, crawling out of the shelter. "I won't be a moment."

"What do you mean, covers?" Luke called after her.

The moss was growing over a very large patch of ground. Jenny gripped some like before and yanked upwards; it tore off the ground in a strip.

"Oh," Luke said, as she came back with three strips of moss. "That's what you meant."

Jenny dropped two on the floor, and gave one to Luke. "If you wrap it round yourself—green side inside—it'll be warmer. I'll take the first watch."

* * *

It was a lot colder than the previous night. Even sitting up wrapped in her moss blanket, Jenny was shivering fit to burst.

Where they were situated, she could see the lake, the place where the worm had almost eaten Luke, and about half of the rest of the clearing.

The gun was lying just outside the shelter, ready to grab if anything came for them. After the Fuzzballs and now the Giant Worm, Jenny wasn't taking any chances.

A moon cast a silvery glaze over the scene. It looked quite beautiful, if you didn't look at the mound of disintegrated worm. How appearances could be deceptive. As much as Jenny, for all her two years, had loved and thrived on adventure—this was a bit more than she could handle.

She stiffened. There had been movement, she was sure of it. She held her breath, fingers doing the trigger itch.

Again! There was something in the sky. Some kind of bird was circling, high above where the dead worm lay.

Before Jenny could determine whether there was any danger or not, several others joined the first, and they all swooped down, making a beeline for the dead creature.

Realising what they were doing, Jenny pressed her eyes shut, but the sounds were disgusting and she didn't dare move to put her fingers in her ears in case she drew their attention. Finally the sounds stopped and she peeked. They were all flying away.

She began to sigh in relief, but then realised something. Only about half the carcass was gone. Why had they …

Her question was answered as the temperature dropped several degrees in a second. Her breath was an icy mist. The silvery glaze was no longer moonlight—it was frost.

Jenny's teeth were chattering. She watched in fear and astonishment as ice formed on the plant life in front of her eyes. Her shelter frosted over, including the moss and, to her alarm, their own bodies.

A great groaning, creaking noise accompanied her view of the lake and river going smooth and silver.

Jenny tried to rub the frost off her arms. Her hands had turned blue already.

She started to shake Luke. They had to move. They were going to have to get up and walk, because if they stayed where they were, they would be dead by morning.

**TBC …**


	10. Breaking and Entering

**Chapter Ten: Breaking and Entering**

"Gerrof," Luke mumbled. He was shivering so madly he may as well have had a 'vibrate' setting.

"Luke, _wake up_," Jenny said, shaking him harder. "You need to get up, now. We have to move."

"'S cold."

"I know it's cold, that's why you need to move. _Luke!_"

He opened his eyes, squinting up at Jenny. "What's going on?"

"What's going on is, you've got icicles growing in your hair. If you don't want to freeze to death, you'd better get up."

Luke slowly sat up. Jenny reached out a hand and pulled him to his feet. He rubbed his eyes. "Why's it so cold?"

"It just suddenly iced over, no warning. Does your leg feel up to walking?"

Luke took a step forward, and it buckled under him. Jenny caught him before he hit the ground. "Uh, no, not quite."

"Well, unfortunately, you don't have a choice. We need to get walking if we want to keep warm. Put your arm round my shoulder."

Armed with their provisions, the two limped awkwardly into the night.

* * *

Luke was starting to go numb again. The freezing cold penetrated deep into his skin. His fingers and toes felt like they were going to fall off. He had trouble keeping himself awake; he felt groggy and sagged against Jenny, who was straining to keep a hold of him. If he had been more with it, he would have felt guilty, but he wasn't up to feeling anything. All he wanted was to go back to sleep.

She stopped suddenly, and he groaned a little. Not because he wasn't grateful that she'd stopped; just that it had jarred his aching bones.

"Luke," she said. Jenny's voice seemed very far away. "Luke? _Luke!_ Wake up. I've found …"

He wasn't sure if he'd switched off, or she'd stopped trying to rouse him, but either way, by next morning that was all he remembered.

* * *

Jenny was not a fan of water by any means. If there was a reason for that, she didn't know it. All she knew was that all her life, the sight of it alone made her nervous. Not drinking water—that was fine. A tiny trickling stream wasn't much to get nervous about. But anything bigger than a small pond gave her serious butterflies.

Still, she couldn't help but feel grateful for stumbling on this particular lake.

It wasn't like the small one back in the clearing. Steam was rising from it rapidly in little spirals, and it hadn't frozen over. Jenny had wondered about that, until she experimentally dipped her finger in the water and burned it.

A hot spring—must be. A glorious oasis in the frozen landscape. Just sitting on the bank was enough to defrost them both. Luke, who must have passed out somewhere on the journey, looked a lot more comfortable lying on the lake edge than he had in the shelter. Jenny kept an eye on him, to make sure he didn't roll over, but he seemed completely zonked out. All right for some.

They would have to be able to find this again, Jenny thought. If the nights were going to be as cold as this. They hadn't even been provided with jumpers.

She stayed awake the whole of the rest of the night. She was tired, mainly from having lugged Luke all this way, but felt it was probably better for him to get the sleep—humans needed it more than she did. She'd have a kip the next night.

The forest thawed just before dawn, as quickly as it had frozen over. It was still cold, but nowhere near as much. Jenny checked on Luke—he was still shivering, but less violently.

She peeled the bandage off her fingers, noticing that she hadn't felt any pain for a while. The wound had closed and settled down, leaving only a few scars. Either she was immune to the poison, it wasn't designed to last, or she had come into contact with whatever cured it without realising. Either way, she had her hand back. It would have been more of a relief, but she'd forced herself not to contemplate the possibility of the poison being fatal. They'd had enough to worry about already.

As the light crept in, Jenny spotted something odd on the opposite bank. It looked like a large brown ball—about the size of a bowling ball—lying on the ground. She hesitated, and checked on Luke before heading over to take a look.

When she got there, she realised it was some kind of shell, broken and empty. Looking up, Jenny saw the tree it had fallen from full of hard brown shells. She pulled one off the lowest branch, and cut the top out.

Unlike the broken one, it was filled with some kind of yellow fruit. Jenny sucked the juice out of the top, and nearly passed out—it was heavenly. The pulp, though, tasted bitterly sour and she almost gagged on it.

* * *

When Luke woke, Jenny was kneeling by a fire over which she had rigged some kind of cooking pot that resembled a coconut shell, but rounder.

"Didn't you sleep?" he asked, sitting up and rubbing his eyes.

"Don't need to. I'll sleep tomorrow night."

"What are you doing?"

"Like you said—boiling down some tree sap. After last night, syrup for breakfast is probably a good idea; I reckon we need the energy. In the meantime, try this—drink, don't eat."

She handed him another shell, and he tasted the juice for himself. "_Wow_."

"How are you feeling?" Jenny asked, poking the fire to stop it going out.

"Not brilliant. But I don't feel cold anymore." Luke looked around. "Um, where are we?"

"Hot spring. I've marked its rough location on the map so hopefully we can find it again. Or maybe we should start marking the trees. If there are going to be more minus-degree nights, we'll need to get back here. I think this is done." Jenny stuck her finger in the syrup and licked it. "Ouch, it's hot."

Luke tried not to laugh, and accepted his bowl of syrup. Jenny had apparently been busy, for she had dug the pulp out of another shell, cleaned it, and broken it clean in half to make a bowl for each of them. She even appeared to have whittled two spoons.

Breakfast was warm, very sticky, and very sweet. The first few spoonfuls, especially to someone who had eaten nothing but a few pieces of fruit in forty-eight hours, were to die for. Then it became quite sickly, and needed a lot of juice to wash it down.

"At least we shouldn't starve as long as we can use the trees," Jenny said calmly.

"We've got to make some kind of pack," Luke said. "So we can take these with us."

* * *

The morning was spent covering provisions. Between them they managed to rig up two packs to be carried on their backs. They dug out the inedible fruit from all the shells they had drank dry—which were quite a few—and filled them with water, more syrup, and left two empty which they hoped to fill with food when they found more. All the full shells were stopped up firmly and packed up with the broken camera, flint hammer, whittled cutlery, untouched shell-fruits, and rolls of moss. Luke had the vine-rope wrapped around him, and Jenny's gun was slung over her shoulder.

The plan was still to find the edge of the map, so once they were ready, they began northwards again. This time, Jenny marked notches on passing trees that they could follow come nightfall, if necessary.

Luke's bullet wound still hurt like hell, but he gritted his teeth and put up with it. Jenny had asked him several times if he was all right, if he needed to slow down, but he just shook his head and continued pushing through the pain. The sooner they got off the planet, the better.

"I think we must be nearly there," Jenny said around lunchtime as they stopped and consulted the map again.

"Good," Luke said, leaning heavily against a tree. "If it took much longer, we wouldn't be able to make it back to the spring before it frosts."

"I've been wondering about that. So far the signs point towards whoever left us here, wanting us to have a chance, right?"

"Yeah …"

"Well then, why not give us something warm to wear?" Jenny asked. "I mean, if we'd started trekking through the desert instead, or even a different part of the forest—we probably wouldn't have lasted the night."

"I dunno," Luke said. "I give up trying to get into their head. Or heads."

Jenny shivered, perhaps at the thought of there being more than one perpetrator. "We _have_ to figure it out. What other chance do we stand?"

"None." Luke paused. "What's that?"

Jenny whirled around, raising the gun, but he put a hand on her arm. "Looks like a hill."

They headed slightly off course towards it, curious. As they neared it, Jenny let out an exclamation and hurried forwards.

"There's a _door_," she said as Luke caught up. "Look." She pulled a handful of greenery away, and he saw there was indeed a stone door built into the hill. "It looks ancient."

Together they cleared the plant life away. The stone wall, in the hill, was only about five feet wide, and the door was a narrow strip of stone with no visible means of opening. Luke tried pressing where the handle would have been, but no go.

"There's got to be a way inside somehow." Jenny stared at it, chewing her lip. After a moment she stepped backwards, braced herself, and without warning aimed a flying kick at the door.

It shuddered slightly, stone dust falling from the edges. Jenny kicked it again, and the same occurred, now accompanied by a short creak. Luke pointed. "Look!"

The door had moved in slightly at the top, and outwards at the bottom.

"It swings out," Jenny said. "Let's try pushing."

They pushed at the top half, but nothing happened. Luke had an idea. "Stand back."

The 'hammer' wasn't big enough, but there were rocks around. He found the biggest one he thought he could carry, and lobbed it at the door, aiming for the top.

It almost hit its target, striking the door near the middle, and so hard that, rather than swinging open, the door snapped from its hinges and disappeared altogether into darkness. For a moment, they could hear both rock and door tumbling down a flight of steps.

"Subtle," Jenny said with a smirk.

"Excuse me? Who's the kickboxing champion?"

They stared down the steps. The inside was very dark, and could easily have gone down forever.

"Why don't I go down and scout it out," Jenny said eventually. "You'd be better off not using steps."

"No chance," Luke said firmly. "I really don't think we should split up."

She looked relieved at that, and he felt a strange warmth that she'd made the suggestion despite obviously preferring they stay together. "Okay, then. Here goes."

**TBC …**


End file.
